The Parable of the Sower Series - The Sower

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The Parable of the Sower Series

I thought this was going to be one sermon, but could not get past the first point God showed me . . . so welcome to this series

A parable is a made up story used to illustrate a spiritual lesson . . . Jesus used parables to teach kingdom truths and principles

Matthew 13:3–9 NASB95

3 And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, “Behold, the sower went out to sow; 4 and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. 5 “Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. 6 “But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. 7 “Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out. 8 “And others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. 9 “He who has ears, let him hear.”

The Parable of the Sower, show pic

The disciples asked Jesus to explain the parable and this is what Jesus said, and Jesus explains it in verses 18-23

I’ll give you a quick summary of his summary: The seed is the word of God and when you spread the word of God

some hear it, but never receive it, the devil snatches it away

some hear it, and are excited about it, but persecution because of the word makes them give up

some hear it, but they become to concerned with materialism, and the word does them no good

and some hear it, and truly understands it and bears fruit in their lives

I am called to help us do a deep dive into this parable and helps us to see ourselves.

Today we will start with the first part, the simplest part . . . Jesus says . . .

Matthew 13:18 NASB95

18 “Hear then the parable of the sower.

This is a parable about the sower . . . we cannnot skip that, we can take a lot just from that

this is not about non-sowers

In the parable Jesus said, the SOWER went out to sow . . . because that is what sowers do

relax, don’t let the word, “sower” scare you, this sermon is not about money, . . . in the explanation of the Parable, the seed was the Word of God (we will get to that)

But it all starts with a sower, there has to be a sower

(for the young people, the sower is the one who spread the seeds, planted the seeds)

I have a question, are you a sower?

You are a sower, if you sow

if you don’t sow, you are not a sower

I am not asking, if you want to sow . . . if you plan on sowing . . . if you used to sow . . . .

but right now, in this season, at this stage of your life, are you a sower of the word of God?

let me help you answer this question by examining what a sower does

if you are a sower, then you cast out a lot of seed.

The sower in this parable is casting out so much seed that the seed is falling everywhere, some even fell on the side of the road

Sowers really throw it out there, they don’t pin all of their hopes on 1 seed.

Chat GPT says Coca-Cola has a $4 billion dollar advertising budget (TV commercials, move advertisements, social media, bill boards, radio, sponsorships, stores displays, ect)

they cast a lot of advertising seeds (the word about their product) all over the world . . .thousands of times per day

they are sowers, big sowers . . and big reapers ($47 billion)

Some of us are not seeing people come to Christ or even come to Church because

we are not sowing at all

or we are sowing, but not sowing a lot of seeds

If you are a sower, you cast a lot of seeds . . . not just a few

someone is saying, “I can’t just run up to everyone I see and say, ‘Do you know Jesus?’”

Yes, there is a such thing as the right time and the right place, we should definitely be lead by the Holy Spirit . . . Coca-Cola targets their audience . . . but they do a lot of targeting

but understand, they don’t target a person, they target an audience . . . knowing that some one in that audience will buy their product

Don’t tell me that the Holy Spirit only asked you to plant two seeds all year! Cast some seeds!

quit trying to figure out who will respond well to the message

you don’t know which person will actually be good ground . . . so just cast your seeds

if you are a sower, then you have faith

It takes faith because sowing costs

for when you sow, you plant what you could have eaten

you give up something you could have kept

like corn - you either can eat these corn kernels or plant them in the ground

I can keep these kernels and have corn on the cob, or can have popcorn, or I can make some corn chips, or corn bread . . . . or I can give these corn kernels up and plant them in the ground to grow a field of corn stalks

You must have faith to be a sower because sowing cost you something . . . and you must have the faith that it will be worth the cost

farmers plant seeds . . . trusting that the seeds will return a harvest for them . . . they believe it will be worth the cost

they have faith that they will reap more than what it cost to sow

if you are not a sower of the word of God, it could be because you don’t have faith that sowing is worth the cost

it’s not worth the time I would have to sacrifice (my schedule is so full already)

it’s not being worth being treated differently

I don’t want to be known as the church lady, as Mr. Preacher Man . . . “oh there they go again”

I don’t want to miss out on social functions

it’s not worth dealing with the mockers (people who like to start trouble with Christians for fun)

it’s not worth people watching my every move, wanting me to fail

but remember, in some places, sowers have the faith to risk their lives . . . yet we often don’t have the faith to be inconvenienced

When you are a sower, you are working for the Lord . . . .you are doing his will

We should have the faith that serving the Lord is worth it

serving the Lord will pay off

that you can’t beat God giving

your labor will not be in vain

Sometimes we don’t have faith because we don’t believe in the miracle of salvation . . . . we say

the world is too crazy

the people out too out there

times are so different

We forget the the gospel is the power of God unto salvation

we forget that the blood still works

the holy spirit still convicts

Jesus still saves

have faith that if I cast seeds

people will be saved, changed, healed, delivered, made new

Sowers have to wait

no instant gratification

you sow and then have to wait until reaping season

you have to wait, but harvest will come

too often we give up after one person says they can’t come to church

some people say, “maybe next time” and we give up on waiting right then and there, and won’t even try talk to them again

if they give you an opportunity to follow up, then follow up

I’ve seen people I had reached out to, reach back out to me months or even years later

you have to wait

they never would have reached back out if I had never reached out in the first place

don’t expect overnight harvest

sowers will receive a crop . . . the parable said: hundred, sixty, thirtyfold . . . some crops will be bigger or smaller than others, but there will be a crop

don’t give up on sowing because there are no instant results

Sowing is a lifestyle

sowers sow every sowing season

sowers are not just one and done

we will hear a sermon like this, be determined to share the word . . . then share the word for the whole month . . . and then stop doing it all together (I did it!)

we have that single mission trip mentality (nothing wrong with mission trip)

we will go serve the people of . . . neighborhood, country

help them and as we help them we will spread the word of God

help them, sing some praise songs, pray with them, just show love

and then return to our regular life . . . where we don’t sow anymore

we just remember the fantastic time we had when we shared the word of God four years ago

but real sowers get out there every season because sowing is a lifestyle

a lifestyle of casting a lot of seed

a lifestyle of having the faith that it will be worth it

a lifestyle of having to wait before seeing the fruit of your labors

Application

If you are a Christian you are supposed to be sowing the word

Jesus said the harvest is ripe, but the laborers are few

in other words, there’s lot’s of work to do, but few people willing to work for the kingdom

he said pray that the Lord of the harvest will send more workers . . . this command to pray for more workers assumes that you are already one of the workers

Wherever God has placed you, that is your planting ground

job, school, family, organizations

you should be doing some sowing in that ground

be spirit led, be wise, but you are responsible to sow . . . cast out a lot of seeds

And there are so many ways to cast a lot of seed in the times we live in

mail, email, phone call, text, social media, a church t-shirt

The days of knocking on doors is probably over, but now we can go straight into people’s homes through social media

It has never been easier to sow

Every Christian on social media should purposely used their social media to sow the word of God

I am not saying that every post has to be about God

but there should be a strategy in place to sow some seeds

but just sharing a church sermon excerpt might be the seed someone needs

speaking directly to WMBC, I believe the bigget thing for us is that we are not casting out a lot of seed . . . we are planting one seed at a time . . . more experimenting than sowing

putting all of our hope on one seed

I invited one person to church

I shared one post(and didn’t even share it like we wanted people to actually watch it)

I mentioned a single scripture to one co-worker

I sent a single text to one family member last month

The harvest is right in your phone for most of us

Can you imagine God comparing you to the Christians who had to walk miles to another city to witness . . . and all you have to do is press a button to get the word all over the country/world?

Encouragement to do right (sow)

You want God to step into your situation . . . I know you do . . . we all do

Jesus said in Matt 6:33 to seek the kingdom first

take care of kingdom business

and God will take care of your business

sowing is kingdom business!

Get your priorities straight and watch God straighten out some things in your life

Sowers sow!

I go back to . . .

Matthew 13:9 NASB95

9 “He who has ears, let him hear.”